As they walk down the steep concrete steps, BYU fans trying to find a seat to watch a women's basketball game in the Marriott Center have plenty of options.

No matter if they are two-time defending Mountain West Conference regular season champions or struggling to win games, BYU's women struggle to attract fans. This lack of attendance in the MWC and NCAA leads to the lack of attendance in the WNBA.

The main cause of the low attendance at BYU is the lack of student awareness about the upcoming games. BYU marketing this year has tried to change this by implementing several techniques to reach the community and students to support women athletics.

BYU marketing earlier this season submitted an application to the NCAA "Pack the House Challenge". To achieve higher attendance, BYU set a goal to beat last season's record of 4,018 fans at the University of Utah game. Free vouchers to the game were placed around the Provo Community along with middle and elementary schools reading an announcement every morning to get young fans interested. BYU also initiated a dorm storm to pass out vouchers to students on campus.

Despite the tough loss, fans broke the record with 6,206 fans, surpassing last season's record. With the record-breaking crowd, BYU won the contest in the MWC "Pack the House Challenge". However, for the remainder of the season, the Cougars struggled to fill their seats while averaging 1,020 attendants.

"They play just as hard as the men," said Weston Wride, promotions coordinator for BYU Athletics. "It's just a fun game to watch."

BYU is still trying to find ways to increase attendance at women's sports. BYU is launching a new campaign with a commercial and posters that portray women's athletes as classy, smart and talented. They are also starting a new Web site to give the community and younger girls opportunities to meet and learn about BYU's players.

Weston expressed why there is a struggle for attendance.

"A lot of them have never been. They just don't know how fun and how hard these girls play. Students should come to support our women. They are ambassadors for the university and the church."

Then what is the cause of low attendance at women's games?

"People don't know about our games," BYU guard Mindy Nielson said. "In order to get people, you have to build tradition on your team. When you are losing, you don't get fans."

Nielson admits women's play is slower, but agrees that women's games are just as entertaining as men's sports.

"Women have more fundamentals," Nielson said. "We are more fundamentally sound than men."

BYU senior Shawnee Slade hopes for her last season to attract fans and prove her team is a top competitor in the MWC.

"Defensively, women play defense a lot more than men," Slade said. "It's more difficult on both sides to score. Fundamentally, women have to be really on top of their game."

You can always rely on BYU's pep band to give a boost to the audience participation through music and cheers. With low attendance this season, the band was the major factor in producing energy. Anna Ellsworth, a sophomore majoring in Theatre Education, was one of the members of the pep band this season at the women's games.

"The band can make or break a game because audiences have so much of an effect on the game," Ellsworth said.

Ellsworth agrees that women's games aren't as published as men, but still remains a fan of women's basketball.

"It is so much fun to watch, and those girls are so talented," Ellsworth said. "With a bigger crowd, women could do even better."

This same fight for attendance continues in the WNBA.

When the WNBA first started in 1997, the average attendance was a little less than 10,000. Now in its 11th season, WNBA president Donna Orender looks to increase the attendance after fewer than 8,000 fans showed up to games last season.

"Attendance will be up," said Orender in Sports Business Daily. The WNBA is starting a new campaign called "Journeys" in which players share their journey to the WNBA. Along with this ad, the "Dads and Daughters" ad continues, which features key NBA players with their daughters.

"There will be more broadcast hours this year than in other years," Orender said. ESPN2, ABC, NBA TV will air more games than previous years.

"It's always going to be a fight for women to gain that respect," Slade said. "Our goal this year is to get that support. It makes it so much more fun for us."